Much is being done of the fact that Greece could be on the verge of reaching of some kind of agreement with its creditors. It started a few months ago when Sarkozy supposedly negotiated a “voluntary” forgiveness of about 50% of debt held in private hands. This includes hedge funds, banks, pension funds and other [...]

On Friday, Standard and Poor’s downgraded nine European countries, including France and Austria. Both of these countries are large guarantors of the European Financial Stability Facility, otherwise known as the bailout fund. Combined, France and Austria are responsible for Euro 180 billion of credits supporting the fund. For the EFSF to retain its AAA rating, [...]

When Standard & Poor’s cut its credit rating on the United States to AA-plus from AAA back in August, the agency was vilified and the decision called “absurd” among other names. Now Fitch ratings also threatens its highest grade of American credit. This company already changed its outlook to negative from stable last month after [...]